1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a failure monitoring method and a failure monitoring computer program for monitoring failures attributable to degradation of electronic parts.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for information processing apparatus that operate as infrastructures 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Such an information processing apparatus is normally designed to provide the modules it comprises with redundancy and the apparatus itself with a self-diagnostic feature. If one or more than one of the modules fall into trouble, they are isolated and a user is notified of the trouble and prompted to replace the modules that are in trouble. However, such a self-diagnostic feature is adapted to detect logical problems of the circuits of the apparatus and hence it is difficult for the apparatus to recognize an abnormal condition caused by a failure of any of the electric parts that constitute analog circuits. Generally, the impedance of semiconductor parts falls as they are degraded. Then, an excessive electric current can flow to give rise to a problem of short-circuiting as the degradation of the semiconductor parts progresses.
However, logical circuits take only values of 0 and 1 that are produced by using the saturating point operation of an amplifier. Therefore, conventional logical verification techniques cannot detect any increase in the electric current that is produced by the degradation of a semiconductor element. Additionally, an abnormal condition due to a failure of a power supply circuit appears suddenly as a phenomenon of short-circuiting or an open circuit when the progressing degradation of a part goes above a threshold value. When a failure of a power supply circuit occurs, the entire apparatus can be seriously damaged to give rise to a big problem.